


an Afternoon Interview

by Silhouette_R



Category: Harry Potter - J.K.Rowling
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-07
Updated: 2019-07-07
Packaged: 2020-06-24 01:21:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,660
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19713430
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Silhouette_R/pseuds/Silhouette_R
Summary: In their interviews, Draco Malfoy and Hermione Granger were both asked about how they think of each other. FINISHED.





	an Afternoon Interview

“Good afternoon, ma’am. I hope everything went well with you since our most recent owl communication.”

“Of course, I hereby sincerely apologize that you weren’t allowed to apparate to the manor **directly**. As you know, after the war… things like this have surely become something **far beyond** my capacity of deciding.”

“ **NO.** I’ll have to say, what you just said could contribute to some **extremely grievous accusations**. **Never will I ever** take a position against the ministry; in fact, I do have rather positive attitude towards _the department of the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures._ I **even** funded several of their research programs myself. If you **happened to know** one thing or two about me, this shouldn’t remain any top secrets.”

“Two in North America, on thunderbirds; one in _Wakanda_ as well… If this is one of your interview questions, I think we should save it until we suit ourselves in cozy armchairs.”

“Indeed. Turn left, and this way. What you're now staring at are the portraits of the Malfoy ancestors. I personally find **no necessity** of addressing any of them specifically — any wizard who’s familiar with the history of magic should be able to at least name most of their outstanding contributions to our society.”

“Do sit down. Would you like something to drink? Coffee, black tea, pumpkin juice…”

“Of course you can. Our guest wants it black, Lila, try not to mess it up this time.”

“What is it? My attitude towards houseelves was **unexpectedly gentle**? I’ll have to say, how you managed to put things forward could be considered as some sort of prejudice towards pure bloods. **We disavow the brazen exploitation on them and never once ignore the fact that they do have their proper rights.** As a matter of fact, I myself am one of the major shareholders of _the Society for the Promotion of Elfish Welfare_. All the elves you saw here enjoy their wages and day-offs — please allow me to address it proudly, even better welfare than those who work in Hogwarts. I would like to nicely suggest you to stop judging me using **some ridiculous tags and stereotypes** , if I may.”

“Apologies accepted, of course. I just found it necessary to develop certain ground rules here before our **meant-to-be-nice-and-friendly** interview goes any further.”

“No, I don’t mind. You can use yourQuickQuotes Quill if that allows you to **get down to business as soon as possible**.”

“We are **indeed** talking about houseelves; your reliable memory impressed me.”

“Yes. I have a **rather** friendly relationship with the vice president of the _S.P.E.W._ ; as a matter of fact, the photo you just exhibited was from the Quidditch match last week — I shared the same box with Ralph as you can tell.”

“Aha, right. Ralph was talking about the magnificent scoring Lynch did; as you can see here in the photo, he made me **laughed my lungs out**.”

“What was it about **my left arm**?”

“ ** _Rested on the back of the empty chair? In many other occasions as well?_** Ma’am, I’ll have to politely request you to respect my **privacy** — it’s just one of the cute little habits of mine. Seriously, it seems like you are holding certain malice against me. I thought we just met each other today. Did I do anything that might have offended you in the **past fifteen minutes**?”

“Apologies accepted, as you wish.”

“Ralph is humorous and erudite — speaking of which, you do know that he’s the grandson of **that** world-renowned Newt Scamander right? Pleasant manners, no doubts...”

“ ** _President Granger?_** I thought you would actually address her as Director Granger — she just got promoted recently.”

“ _The relationship between me and Hermione Granger_ ’s like... I thought people from _Daily Prophet_ like you have reported on this over thousands of times: you know, the war ended, heroes were lenient with sins, followed by a dramatic reconciliation that everyone’s fond of… **That’s it. Nothing more.** ”

“ _What was she like?_ **Bright, calm, fair, genuine** … I bet those are the words you’re expecting?”

“ **Everyone** would say so, tons of times, in all sorts of occasions — as if they know her well **in person**.”

“Abstruse compliments like these would never be my answer; **never**.”

“She’s got that surprisingly naive attitude towards things; quite childish, I must say. It’s like she’ll never understand the instinctive desire of fame and fortune. I mean, that’s basically **humanity 101**.”

“Always obtrusive and impulsive, knows definitely **nothing** about self-preservation. At least 80% of her major accomplishments were basically results of **tremendous** luck, if you ask for my opinions on that. She would never have survived the war if it wasn’t Merlin’s blessing.”

“Extremely rigid and boring all the… **fine, most of the times**. Always talking about her job… _centaurs’ legal rights!_ Oh probably I should pinch my nose to mimic her tone.”

“Let me think of what else… Aha, **bossy**. Her loud voice is by all means insufferable.”

“ _You think I_ ** _abhor_** _her?_ Just because I refuse to eulogize her deeds by repeating what was written on her chocolate frog card **word by word** , as if I was some random idiot who happens to know how to read?”

**“No, my dear madam. I do not hate her. On the contrary, I LOVE HER.”**

——————

“Come on in, come on in! It’s so nice to finally meet you! I hope the unexpected storm this afternoon caused no inconvenience to your trip here.”

“Yes, indeed. This happened to be the best thing I love about floo: _unpleasant weather would never hinder your travel_. The sentence **by itself** brings your bright mood.”

_“Do sit down. Would you like something to drink? Coffee, black tea, pumpkin juice…”_

“My tone sounds familiar to you? Do you mean I’m **way too formal**? My apologies on that: I just got off from a meeting and I guess I haven’t quite recovered from that **pile of mess** …”

“No; it’s all my fault. It’s very kind of you. Maybe it’ll be nice if we could _get down to business_?”

“Sure we can get it started with some quick chats on my work.”

“How did you know…? Actually we are still waiting for some paperwork to be issued, it’s complicated… But I really appreciate your felicitation, thank you; it’s a real bother.”

“I’ll have to say that no major adjustments regarding on specific tasks I’m in charge of were made **so far**. Just as usual: things such as amending _the International Statute of Secrecy_ and drafting _the General Provisions on Centaurs’ Rights and Interests_ have already beaten my head off.”

“Indeed, I’m always glad to see the raising profile on centaurs among ourwizarding society. Of course I’m **honored** to address higher solicitude on this very species, and on things such as their living conditions, through this interview. As a matter of fact, _the department of the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures_ has this research program in _Wakanda_ , where centaurs get along quite well with local wizards as well as muggles. Therefore our research team is now collecting information: their social hierarchy and ideology, local laws targeting magical creatures, all sorts of things. We asserted that this info would lay considerable foundation to the provisions we are currently working on.”

“I’m **so sorry** that I could barely call on a pause to myself when it comes to work. I’ve been complained about this by almost all of my friends over and over. I got way too excited… Please, do take your time.”

“Sure! I would love to talk about _the Society for the Promotion of Elfish Welfare_ with you. In fact, I am **flattered** to do so.”

“Right, I came up with this idea in my fourth grade. Regarding on the **social situation** back then — I wasn’t surprised that it barely gained any attentions at the beginning, **let alone support**.”

“ _Initial members?_ Me, Harry and Ron, also for a quite long period of time, the only members.”

“While they are my best friends. I’m actually pretty sure that this is the only reason why they are still in the committee; their interests lay elsewhere.”

“Then followed by Dr… Draco **Malfoy**. As a matter of fact, we would never hold on to what it looks like today with out his financial support. Disbandment was what’s been waiting for us if **he** weren’t there for us.”

“ _About why_ ** _Mr. Malfoy_** _did something like this?_ Wouldn’t that be a better question **for him** than for me?”

“What he did allayed the intense relationship between us in a great deal. It was featured **accurately** in the news report.”

“ _My impressions on him?_ It’s rather… **complicated**. Complicated is the only proper word I could have possibly thought of.”

“If there has to be an answer, I would rather believe what he now looks like differed **greatly** from what he used to do.”

“Indeed. He’s done all sorts of horrible things — **in his adolescence**.”

“He, **was, ma’am, was** , a deatheater.”

“ ** _Taking part with him…?_** Oh, no, I wasn’t. His court decision from Wizengamot lies still in the ministry’s archive room, and it was **clearly stated** …”

“You might have read _an Essay on Criticism by Alexander Pope_ : _to err is human_ , and that surely includes **you and me**. I refuse to judge someone based on their faults in the past. Rather, I believe that souls change over time, and therefore **I make my judgements based on what my eyes see in the present.** ”

“You’re by all means correct. We should **get down to business**.”

“What he appears to me now… is someone rather… **soft**.”

“Probably I’m quite used to see through things, ma’am.”

“ **Mean** is never a proper adjective to me. He’s eager for attentions and love, which he has absolutely no idea how to acquire. **And that’s it**.”

“ _Weak?_ If that stands for his crippling anxiety to prove himself, then yes; **that’s what I meant**.”

“ ** _Do I pity him?_** No, I think there must be a major miscommunication here.”

**“I LOVE HIM.”**


End file.
